Realtime and Historical Data

When sensors and microcontrollers and cloud connectivity become cheap, they will be in every product and system that you can imagine. They will be generating data. Sometimes it will be customer facing, sometimes it won’t be.

Either way, it’s important to think about user experiences with data in time and space. Important questions should be researched:

What is the purpose of real-time data?

Does it need to be glanceable or detailed and text-based?

Does it need to be seen on location or remotely?

Does it need to be acted on? If so, by a person or a machine?

Similar questions apply to historical data though the answers will be different in many cases. And those differences should inform design decisions:

What is the purpose of historical data?

Does it need to be glanceable or detailed and text-based?

Does it need to be seen on location or remotely?

Does it need to be acted on? If so, by a person or a machine?

As inventors, we need to think about this data piece as an integral part of the experience with the life of a product or system. It’s not something that gets tagged on at the end like the packaging which is a short-lived aspect of the UX. Data, you could say, is the language the product speaks. It needs to be clear and smart and engaging.